IP: Record Labels Want 4 Internet Providers to Block Music Site

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Since I provided an affidavit to this filing, I thought a bit of explanation
might be illuminating.

I have long resisted and will continue to resist the attempts of
organizations to block access to the net in an attempt to restrict the
freedom of speech and the fair use of information on the internet.

I am strongly opposed to any attempt to control the fair use access to
music, text, pubs etc. This does not seem to  the issue in this case.

This case was interesting for several reasons to me. First the site is an
egregious  example of a site that exists only to hold copyrighted music and
offers a unreachable contact address and false advertisements in an attempt
to look proper.  Second, the aim of the case is the backbone suppliers not
the local ISPs.

I have always felt that the law we have on the books should be followed
until the law is changed by the congress or the courts unless there is a
much much higher ethical imperative that holds.

This case seemed to be to be a good  case to test the issues raised by DMCA
( a law I believe was fatally flawed in concept and should be repealed)
part dealing with copyrighted material on off-shore sites.

I will be happy to send any Iper the affidavit on request. The affidavit
addressed a set of technical issues and did so in a very limited context.

Dave


Record Labels Want 4 Internet Providers to Block Music Site

August 17, 2002
By AMY HARMON 

Testing out a tactic to combat online piracy, a group of
record companies asked a judge yesterday to order four
major Internet service providers to block Americans from
viewing a China-based Web site that offers thousands of
copyrighted songs free of charge.

The 13 record labels that filed the suit in Federal
District Court for the Southern District of New York in
Manhattan say the site, Listen4ever .com, is "even more
egregious" than the music-sharing service Napster, which
was shut by a court order.

But in the Napster case, the recording industry sued
Napster itself. The new action is the first time record
companies have sought to compel the companies that control
the Internet backbone to intervene. The four companies
named in the suit are AT&T Broadband, Cable and Wireless,
the Sprint Corporation and UUNet Technologies. The record
labels in the lawsuit include Sony Music Entertainment, the
Universal Music Group and RCA Records.

The lawsuit invokes an untested provision of a 1998 federal
law, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, that allows a
court to order Internet providers to take limited steps to
block offshore sites that violate United States copyright
laws. Sarah Edler, a spokeswoman for AT&T Broadband, said
the company had never before been asked to block access to
a foreign site. 

David Farber, a University of Pennsylvania computer
scientist and an early architect of the Internet, filed an
affidavit in the case, saying it would be relatively easy
for the Internet companies to block the Internet address of
the Web site without disrupting other traffic.

"It's not a big hassle," Mr. Farber said. "There's no way
to stop everybody, but a substantial number of people will
not be able to get access."

The companies named in the suit declined to comment. But a
person who works closely with Internet providers said that
they were concerned about how easy it was for a Web site to
change Internet addresses. If copyright holders began
asking them to block sites in large numbers, and to keep
track of every new address, it could divert resources from
running regular Web traffic.

Pirate sites that set up in countries that do not enforce
United States copyright laws are a growing problem for the
music and movie industries as they try to control the free
exchange of their material online.

The Listen4ever site is written in English and appears
aimed at an American audience. Yesterday, it was possible
to download songs by Bruce Springsteen and music from the
soundtrack of "Blue Crush."

The site thanks a list of "top uploaders" under a note that
reads: 

"Attention: all music files here are uploaded by lots of
music fans for sharing free. These music files are only for
trial listening, please don't use these for business
purpose and delete these files after you listen, thanks!
(support your favorite singers, please buy their CDs)."

An e-mail message sent to a Yahoo e-mail account, the only
contact information on the site, was bounced back. The
recording companies said the only information they were
able to find was that the domain name appeared to have been
registered to a person in Tianjin, China.

Fred von Lohmann, a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, a civil liberties group that monitors digital
copyright issues, said that the law allowed a court to
refuse the copyright holder's request if it decided there
was a less burdensome way to prevent the copyright
infringement. 

"Wouldn't it be better to get an injunction from a Chinese
court to punish the people behind this?" Mr. Von Lohmann
said. "Are we going to have a situation where rather than
going after the actual wrongdoers we just go block all
these sites?" 

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/17/business/media/17MUSI.html?ex=1030573949&e
i=1&en=7cce7775d2d2d2f5


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